List of Famous Artists: The 100 Greatest Painters of All Time

1. Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519)

Italian · High Renaissance · birthplace: Anchiano

Known for: Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), Az utolsó vacsora, Lady with an Ermine

The archetype of the Renaissance genius: painter, engineer and anatomist whose notebooks run to some 7,000 surviving pages. Fewer than twenty paintings are firmly his, yet the Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre in 1911, became the most visited painting on earth, and his Last Supper fixed how the West pictures that scene.

Consult the 577 works of Leonardo Da Vinci

2. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

Spanish · Cubism · born in Málaga

Principal works: Pablo Picasso, Az avignoni leányok, Az öreg gitáros

Over a career of almost 80 years Picasso co-invented Cubism with Georges Braque, broke the single viewpoint of painting with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and turned the bombing of a Basque town into Guernica, the 20th century's best-known protest image. He left an estimated 50,000 works across painting, sculpture, ceramics and print.

Catalogue entry: Pablo Picasso (2,365 works)

3. Rembrandt (1606–1669)

Dutch · Dutch Golden Age · birthplace: Leiden

Known for: Éjjeli őrség, Dr. Nicolaes Tulp anatómiai lelete, A prodigál fia visszatérése

The greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age and of the human face. Rembrandt's light and shadow, used to show thought rather than drama, run from The Night Watch (1642), his huge group portrait of an Amsterdam militia, to about 80 self-portraits that record forty years of his own ageing with unflinching honesty.

Consult the 1,554 works of Rembrandt

4. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564)

Italian · High Renaissance · born in Caprese Michelangelo

Notable works: Ádám teremtése, Utolsó ítélet, Libyi Szibila

A sculptor who called himself one, Michelangelo still painted the most famous ceiling in the world: 500 square metres of the Sistine Chapel, finished in 1512, including The Creation of Adam. Thirty years later he covered its altar wall with The Last Judgment. His muscular, twisting bodies set the course for Mannerism and the Baroque.

Michelangelo Buonarroti in the catalogue: 696 works

5. Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)

Dutch · Post-Impressionism · born in Zundert

Principal works: Éjszaka csillagos égboltja (New York, MoMA), Szilvák, Kávéház a fórum téren éjszaka, Arles

Van Gogh painted for barely ten years and sold almost nothing while he lived, yet his roughly 860 oil paintings, many made in his last two years in Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers, are now among the most reproduced images ever. The Starry Night and the Sunflowers made his thick, swirling brushwork and pure colour instantly recognisable.

Catalogue entry: Vincent Van Gogh (2,857 works)

6. Claude Monet (1840–1926)

French · Impressionism · born in Párizs

Principal works: Impression, Sunrise, Vízi liliomok (vagy Nympheas), A sétányom

The founder of Impressionism: the movement takes its name from his Impression, Sunrise (1872). Monet painted the same haystack, cathedral or pond at different hours to catch changing light, and spent his last thirty years painting the water lilies of his garden at Giverny, a series that points straight to abstract art.

Catalogue entry: Claude Monet (2,448 works)

7. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)

German · Northern Renaissance · born in Nürnberg

Principal works: Young Hare, Öniség portréja húsz éves korában, Fehér rózsa koszorúk

Germany's great Renaissance master brought Italian ideas north and made the print an art of its own. Dürer's engravings and woodcuts, such as Melencolia I and the Rhinoceros, travelled across Europe; in his 1500 Self-Portrait he painted himself frontally, in a pose that recalls images of Christ. His Young Hare is still a model of observation.

Catalogue entry: Albrecht Dürer (1,220 works)

8. Caravaggio (1571–1610)

Italian · Baroque · born in Milánó

Notable works: Szent Máté hívása, Dzidó Holofernes megölése, Az Emmausi Szederészés

Caravaggio painted saints as street people, lit from one side against black backgrounds. That stark light, called tenebrism, made The Calling of Saint Matthew a sensation in Rome in 1600 and spread across Europe through his followers. His violent life, a death sentence for killing a man in a brawl, and his death at 38 added to a legend that has never faded.

Caravaggio in the catalogue: 247 works

9. Raffaello Sanzio (1483–1520)

Italian · High Renaissance · birthplace: Urbino

Known for: Az Athén iskola, A Szistine Madonnák, Raphael

Raphael gave the High Renaissance its ideal of harmony and grace. In his twenties he painted The School of Athens in the Vatican, gathering Plato, Aristotle and the thinkers of antiquity in one perfect space, and his gentle Madonnas became the model for religious painting for four centuries. He died at 37, already the most admired painter in Rome.

Consult the 607 works of Raffaello Sanzio

10. Diego Velázquez (1599–1660)

Spanish · Baroque · born in Sevilla

Notable works: Las Meninas (A kamazzárdák vagy a királyi család), A Rokeby Venus, A Bredai Szegényítés átadása (Las Lanzas)

Court painter to Philip IV of Spain, Velázquez painted kings, dwarfs and servants with the same loose, exact brushwork. Las Meninas (1656), in which the painter looks out at us while painting the royal couple, is one of the most analysed pictures in history. Manet called him 'the painter of painters'.

Diego Velázquez in the catalogue: 468 works

11. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)

French · Post-Impressionism · born in Aix-en-Provence

Principal works: A Kártyajátékosok, Mont Sainte-Victoire látása a Bibemus-vájúból, A Nagy Lukátók

Cézanne rebuilt painting from cylinders, spheres and cones. His dozens of views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, his apples and his Card Players look solid and slightly unstable at once, and that shift opened the way to Cubism. Matisse and Picasso both called him 'the father of us all'.

Catalogue entry: Paul Cézanne (1,227 works)

12. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828)

Spanish · Romanticism · born in Fuendetodos

Principal works: 1808. május 3. A madridi védők kivégzése, Szaturn a fiát falja fel, A nudemaja

Goya painted the Spanish court, then the horrors of war and his own nightmares. The Third of May 1808 turned an execution of civilians into the first modern war painting, and the Black Paintings he made on the walls of his house, including Saturn Devouring His Son, are among the darkest images in art.

Catalogue entry: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1,429 works)

13. Giotto Di Bondone (1267–1337)

Italian · Proto-Renaissance · born in Vicchio

Principal works: Giotto di Bondone Áldozatok Személyisége és Érzelete – Az Új Egyházi Társaság Szívszomorú Képei, No. 31 Krisztus Életéről Szcenek: 15. Krisztus Megfogása (Juda Kissé), Új ítélet (detil 3) (Scrovegni-kápolna (Arena Chapel), Pádua)

Giotto broke with flat Byzantine icons and painted people with weight, emotion and space around them. His fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, finished around 1305, is often called the starting point of Western painting. He also designed the bell tower of Florence cathedral, which still bears his name.

Catalogue entry: Giotto Di Bondone (485 works)

14. Andy Warhol (1928–1987)

American · Pop Art · born in Pittsburgh

Principal works: Campbell’s napokon, Marilyn Diptichon, Triple Elvis

Warhol made consumer goods and celebrities into art: Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), the Marilyn silkscreens, the Brillo boxes. His studio, the Factory, produced images like a production line, and his line that everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes predicted the age of television and social media. He is the face of Pop Art.

Catalogue entry: Andy Warhol (428 works)

15. Henri Matisse (1869–1954)

French · Fauvism · born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis

Principal works: A tánc, Harmónia vörösben, Szőtte női sapka

Matisse led the Fauves, the 'wild beasts' who used colour for feeling rather than description, and remained Picasso's great rival for fifty years. From The Dance and The Red Studio to the paper cut-outs of his last decade, such as The Snail, his work is a lesson in how far pure colour can carry a picture.

Catalogue entry: Henri Matisse (1,214 works)

16. Vaszilij Vasziljevics Kandinszkij (1866–1944)

Russian · Abstract art · born in Moszkva

Notable works: Kompozíció VIII, Kompozíció VII, A Vörös Lovag Érzeke

Kandinsky is usually credited with some of the first purely abstract paintings, around 1910-1913. He co-founded the Blue Rider group in Munich, taught at the Bauhaus and argued, in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, that colour and form act on the soul like music. Composition VII is his densest statement of that idea.

Vaszilij Vasziljevics Kandinszkij in the catalogue: 728 works

17. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

Flemish · Baroque · born in Siegen

Notable works: A Szellem Megtévozója, Medúza feje, Prometheus Szalagozása

The great painter of the Flemish Baroque ran Europe's busiest workshop in Antwerp and worked as a diplomat between courts. Rubens' energetic compositions, warm flesh and swirling movement fill altarpieces such as The Descent from the Cross and the 24 canvases of the Marie de' Medici cycle in the Louvre. 'Rubenesque' entered the language from his figures.

Peter Paul Rubens in the catalogue: 1,641 works

18. Edvard Munch (1863–1944)

Norwegian · Expressionism · birthplace: Ådalsbruk

Known for: A Szörnyű Szeretés, Madonna, A beteg gyermek - festett változat - 1926

The Scream (1893) made Munch the painter of modern anxiety: a figure on a bridge under a blood-red sky, painted in several versions, one of which sold for $119.9 million in 2012. His Frieze of Life on love, jealousy and death made him a founder of Expressionism.

Consult the 2,121 works of Edvard Munch

19. Jan Vermeer van Delft (1632–1675)

Dutch · Dutch Golden Age · born in Delft

Principal works: Johannes Vermeer, A menyegző nő, A festő művészete

Only about 35 paintings are attributed to Vermeer, almost all quiet interiors in Delft lit from a window on the left. Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Milkmaid and The Art of Painting show a control of daylight and colour that no one has matched. Forgotten for two centuries, he was rediscovered in the 1860s.

Catalogue entry: Jan Vermeer van Delft (226 works)

20. Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)

French · Post-Impressionism · born in Párizs

Notable works: Honnan jövünk? Mik vagyunk? Hová megyünk?, Sárga Krisztus, Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin

Gauguin left a Paris stockbroking career for painting, then left Europe for Tahiti and the Marquesas. His flat areas of bold colour and symbolic scenes, such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, freed colour from realism and deeply influenced Matisse and the Fauves.

Paul Gauguin in the catalogue: 928 works

21. Édouard Manet (1832–1883)

French · Realism and Impressionism · born in Párizs

Notable works: Édouard Manet, A Székhelyi ebéd, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere

Manet painted modern Paris and shocked it: the nude picnic of Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863) and the direct gaze of Olympia caused scandals at the Salon. His flat, frank brushwork made him the bridge from Realism to Impressionism, and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère is his last masterpiece.

Édouard Manet in the catalogue: 587 works

22. El Greco (1541–1614)

Greek-born Spanish · Mannerism · born in Iráklio

Principal works: A Szolgálat Szamuel és Szent István által végzett halotti eucharisztia, Toledo táblázata, Krisztus megöltemléltetése

Born in Crete, trained in Venice, settled in Toledo, El Greco painted stretched figures, flickering light and acid colour that baffled his contemporaries. The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and the View of Toledo were rediscovered by the Expressionists and Picasso, who saw in him a modern before his time.

Catalogue entry: El Greco (750 works)

23. Frida Kahlo (1907–1954)

Mexican · Surrealism and Mexican folk art · born in Coyoacán

Principal works: Frida Kahlo - `A két Frida`, Öniség tükörképe és hatalmas nyaklánc, A töröttoszlop

Frida Kahlo painted about 55 self-portraits, many from her bed after a bus accident at 18 left her in lifelong pain. The Two Fridas and Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird mix Mexican folk art, pain and politics. In 1939 the Louvre bought one of her works, a first for a 20th-century Mexican artist.

Catalogue entry: Frida Kahlo (218 works)

24. Jan Van Eyck (1390–1441)

Flemish · Early Netherlandish · born in Maaseik

Notable works: Giovanni Arnolfini és felesége portréja, A Genti Székhely Altárlemeze: Új Élet Ünnepének Megköszöntése, A rózsaszín herceg Rolinhoz

Jan van Eyck perfected oil painting in Bruges and with it a new realism: reflections, fabric, fur and light rendered with microscopic precision. The Arnolfini Portrait (1434), with its convex mirror, and the Ghent Altarpiece, the most stolen artwork in history, are founding works of Northern Renaissance painting.

Jan Van Eyck in the catalogue: 228 works

25. Tiziano Vecellio (1490–1576)

Italian · Venetian Renaissance · birthplace: Pieve di Cadore

Known for: Venere di Urbino, A Szüz Mária Felmagasztalása, Bacchus és Áriadne

Titian dominated Venetian painting for some sixty years and painted for popes, emperors and kings. He built pictures from colour rather than drawing, from the radiant Assumption of the Virgin in the Frari to the Venus of Urbino, the model for centuries of reclining nudes, and his loose late brushwork anticipates Impressionism.

Consult the 953 works of Tiziano Vecellio

26. Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510)

Italian · Early Renaissance · born in Firenze

Notable works: Vénusz születése, Primavera, A Mágok Úrának Imádása

The painter of Medici Florence. Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, both in the Uffizi, revived the gods of antiquity with flowing lines and delicate grace. Forgotten for three centuries, he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites, and his Venus is now one of the most reproduced images of the Renaissance.

Sandro Botticelli in the catalogue: 733 works

27. Salvador Dalí (1904–1989)

Spanish · Surrealism · birthplace: Figueres

Known for: Madarak tükröződése elefántoknak, Az Elefántok, Krisztus Szt János Krisztus

The best-known Surrealist turned dreams into precise, hallucinatory images: the melting watches of The Persistence of Memory (1931) at MoMA are among the most recognised pictures of the 20th century. Dalí's moustache, provocations and showmanship made him one of the first artists to be a media celebrity.

Consult the 1,791 works of Salvador Dalí

28. Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)

Austrian · Vienna Secession · born in Baumgarten

Principal works: A Szív, Adele Bloch-Bauer I - A Golden Icon of Viennese Secession, Az Életfa

Klimt led the Vienna Secession and painted its golden age. The Kiss (1908) and the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, covered in real gold leaf, combine Byzantine mosaic and Art Nouveau ornament. The Adele portrait, looted by the Nazis and returned to its heirs, sold in 2006 for $135 million.

Catalogue entry: Gustav Klimt (744 works)

29. Piet Mondrian (1872–1944)

Dutch · De Stijl · born in Amersfoort

Principal works: Piros, Kék és Sárga Kompozíció, Broadway Boogie Woogie, Estej (Észetevés): Piros Fa

Mondrian reduced painting to black lines, white grounds and the three primary colours. His grid compositions of the 1920s, part of the De Stijl movement, influenced architecture, fashion and graphic design as much as painting. Broadway Boogie Woogie, painted in New York, swaps the black lines for jazz-like yellow blocks.

Catalogue entry: Piet Mondrian (692 works)

30. Joan Miró (1893–1983)

Spanish (Catalan) · Surrealism · born in Barcelona

Principal works: Harlequin Karnevál, A Farm, A Szőlőültetők Erdeje

The Catalan painter invented a language of floating signs, stars, eyes and biomorphic shapes in bright primary colours. Associated with Surrealism, Miró remained independent; The Harlequin's Carnival and the Constellations series of 1940-41 are his best-known works, and he also produced ceramics, murals and the Spanish tourism logo.

Catalogue entry: Joan Miró (428 works)

31. Jean Michel Basquiat (1960–1988)

American · Neo-Expressionism · birthplace: Brooklyn

Known for: Cím Nélküli - Koponya (Broad Gyűjtemény, LA), Ünnepélyes káosz: Basquiat Ünnepélyes (ernok) című alkotása

Basquiat rose from the SAMO graffiti tag on New York walls to international fame in less than five years, working closely with Andy Warhol. His crowded canvases of crowns, skulls and words confront race, power and history. In 2017 his untitled skull of 1982 sold for $110.5 million, a record for an American artist at the time.

Consult the 135 works of Jean Michel Basquiat

32. Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)

French · Romanticism · born in Saint-Maurice

Notable works: Liberté guidant le peuple, Sardanapál halála, Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable - Küzdő arab lóképek egy istállóban

The leader of French Romanticism painted passion, colour and movement against the cool line of Ingres. Liberty Leading the People (1830), with its bare-breasted Marianne on the barricades, became the symbol of the French Republic. His travels in Morocco in 1832 fed his use of colour, later studied by the Impressionists.

Eugène Delacroix in the catalogue: 604 works

33. Masaccio (1401–1428)

Italian · Early Renaissance · birthplace: San Giovanni Valdarno

Known for: A Tribute Money részlete, Cappella Brancacci (előzetes restaurálás), Frescoes in the Cappella Brancacci (right view)

Masaccio died at 26 yet changed painting. His frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence and the Holy Trinity in Santa Maria Novella (around 1427) are among the first paintings built on mathematical one-point perspective, with figures that stand and cast shadows. Every Florentine artist after him, Michelangelo included, studied them.

Consult the 97 works of Masaccio

34. Gustave Courbet (1819–1877)

French · Realism · birthplace: Ornans

Known for: Temetés Ornansban, A Kődarabosok, Az Élet eredete

Courbet declared that he would paint only what he could see, and founded Realism. A Burial at Ornans gave a village funeral the size of a history painting; The Stone Breakers showed manual labour without idealisation. His provocations, from The Origin of the World to his role in the Paris Commune, made him the model of the rebel artist.

Consult the 788 works of Gustave Courbet

35. William Turner (1775–1851)

British · Romanticism · born in London

Notable works: A Harcoló Temeraire vontatása utolsó horgonyhelyére szétszerelés céljából, A harcdugos 'Temeraire' utolsó bólyéig vontatva, hogy szétszedjék, Észtélő víz és gyorsaság – Az Északnyugat Szerkesztőtelepe

Turner painted light, weather and speed until his canvases dissolved into colour. The Fighting Temeraire and Rain, Steam and Speed are among Britain's favourite paintings, and he left some 30,000 works to the nation. Britain's leading contemporary art award, the Turner Prize, bears his name, and his face appears on the £20 note.

William Turner in the catalogue: 870 works

36. Poussin Nicolas (1594–1665)

French · French Classicism · born in Le Havre

Principal works: Et in Arcadia Ego, Germanicus Halála, Dance to the Music of Time

Poussin, a Frenchman who worked mostly in Rome, became the model of classical order in painting. His carefully composed scenes from the Bible and myth, such as Et in Arcadia ego and The Four Seasons, turned reason and balance into a doctrine for the French Academy, and Cézanne wanted to 'redo Poussin after nature'.

Catalogue entry: Poussin Nicolas (412 works)

37. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653)

Italian · Baroque · born in Róma

Principal works: Judit Holovernes letyúrtása, Susanna és az öregségek, Önarckép a festészet allegórijaként (La Pittura)

Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman admitted to Florence's Academy of the Arts of Drawing, in 1616. A follower of Caravaggio, she painted strong women from the Bible with unusual force: her Judith Slaying Holofernes is one of the most violent pictures of the Baroque. Rediscovered in the 1970s, she is now the most famous woman painter of the Old Masters.

Catalogue entry: Artemisia Gentileschi (104 works)

38. Marc Chagall (1887–1985)

Russian-French · Modernism · born in Vitebszk

Principal works: Én és a Falu, A születésnap, Felettünkött

Born in a Jewish village near Vitebsk, Chagall painted it all his life: floating lovers, fiddlers on roofs, goats and violins. Between Cubism, Surrealism and folk tale, I and the Village and The Birthday are poetry in colour. He also designed the ceiling of the Paris Opéra and stained glass from Jerusalem to Reims.

Catalogue entry: Marc Chagall (936 works)

39. Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)

German · Romanticism · born in Greifswald

Principal works: Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog, A jégtenger, "Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon" – Hold gondolkodók

The great painter of German Romanticism showed lone figures facing immense nature, often seen from behind. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog has become the image of Romanticism itself, and The Sea of Ice and Monk by the Sea pushed landscape toward the sublime and the spiritual.

Catalogue entry: Caspar David Friedrich (297 works)

40. Edgar Degas (1834–1917)

French · Impressionism · born in Párizs

Principal works: Táncterület, Észembe ülő Szüzet, Színben úszó táncosok

Degas exhibited with the Impressionists but called himself a realist. He painted dancers at the Paris Opéra in about 1,500 works, racecourses, laundresses and café life, with odd angles and cut-off figures taken from photography and Japanese prints. His sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen shocked the public in 1881.

Catalogue entry: Edgar Degas (1,074 works)

41. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)

French-American · Dada · born in Blainville-Crevon

Notable works: Fúvóka (Duchamp), Nő Görögülés Szinte Három Éppen, L.H.O.O.Q., Mona Lisa hangyával

In 1917 Duchamp signed a urinal 'R. Mutt', titled it Fountain and changed what art could be: the 'readymade' made the idea more important than the hand. His Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 had already scandalised New York in 1913. Conceptual art and much of today's contemporary art descend from him.

Marcel Duchamp in the catalogue: 162 works

42. Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516)

Netherlandish · Early Netherlandish painting · birthplace: ’s-Hertogenbosch

Known for: A földi gyönyörök kertje, A Haywain Triptych, Szent Antal Újra megpróbáltatásának tríptika

Bosch filled his panels with monsters, hybrid creatures and strange punishments that still defy full explanation. The Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado, a triptych of paradise, pleasure and hell painted around 1500, is one of the most enigmatic paintings ever made. The Surrealists claimed him as an ancestor.

Consult the 371 works of Hieronymus Bosch

43. Piero Della Francesca (1415–1492)

Italian · Early Renaissance · born in Sansepolcro

Principal works: A kereszténység büntetése, Mária és Gyermek Szentekkel Táblákészülék, Federico és Battista herceg Urbini képei

Piero della Francesca was also a mathematician who wrote treatises on perspective and geometry. His serene, light-filled figures and clear spaces, in The Baptism of Christ, The Flagellation and the fresco cycle The Legend of the True Cross at Arezzo, make him the calmest and most geometric painter of the Early Renaissance.

Catalogue entry: Piero Della Francesca (287 works)

44. Jacopo Tintoretto (1519–1594)

Italian · Venetian Mannerism · born in Velence

Notable works: Az Utolsó Euchariszija, A Szolgák Mirnöje, Paradizs

Tintoretto, the 'little dyer', painted Venice with fierce speed, dramatic perspective and flickering light. He covered the Scuola Grande di San Rocco with more than 50 canvases, and his Paradise in the Doge's Palace, about 22 metres wide, is among the largest canvas paintings in the world.

Jacopo Tintoretto in the catalogue: 707 works

45. Id. Pieter Bruegel (1525–1569)

Flemish · Northern Renaissance · born in Breda

Principal works: A vadászok télen, Babilofi torony, Szegényes menyegülési ünnep

Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted Flemish peasants, proverbs and seasons with humour and a bird's-eye view. The Hunters in the Snow, The Peasant Wedding and The Tower of Babel turned everyday life and landscape into great subjects. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds about a third of his surviving paintings.

Catalogue entry: Id. Pieter Bruegel (254 works)

46. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)

French · Impressionism · birthplace: Limoges

Known for: Tánc a Moulin de la Galette, Vendégülés hajónaponként, Két nővér (Északi veranda)

Renoir painted the pleasures of modern Paris: dances, boating parties and sunlit faces. Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) and Luncheon of the Boating Party are Impressionism at its most joyful. In old age, with hands crippled by arthritis, he kept painting with the brush strapped to his fingers.

Consult the 2,287 works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir

47. Paul Klee (1879–1940)

German-Swiss · Expressionism · birthplace: Münchenbuchsee

Known for: Twittering Gépezet, To Parnassus - Szomorú és titkos tájjal rendelkező műalkotás, amely magában foglalja az energiát, megvilágosodást és idő múlását jelző fényes narancs köröst. Következően ez alatt a fényes kör alatt egy jelentős háromszög alakzat szerepel, ami hegység vagy, Nile Legend

Klee taught at the Bauhaus and wrote that 'colour and I are one' after a trip to Tunisia in 1914. His thousands of small works, such as Twittering Machine and Senecio, mix childlike signs, music and colour theory. The Nazis labelled his art 'degenerate'; the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern holds about 4,000 of his works.

Consult the 669 works of Paul Klee

48. Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)

American · Abstract Expressionism · born in Cody

Principal works: Szám 1A, Összhatás, Őszi Ritmus Nr. 30

Pollock laid his canvases on the floor and dripped and poured paint from above, a method that made him the face of Abstract Expressionism and moved the centre of the art world from Paris to New York. A 1949 Life magazine article asked whether he was the greatest living painter in the United States. Number 1A, 1948 and Blue Poles are signature drip paintings.

Catalogue entry: Jackson Pollock (186 works)

49. William Blake (1757–1827)

British · Romanticism · born in London

Principal works: Az Égi Üdvözítő, Newton, A Napok Óregje

Poet, painter and engraver, Blake invented his own printing technique and his own mythology. His visionary images, such as The Ancient of Days, The Great Red Dragon paintings and the illustrations to Dante, were ignored in his lifetime and later revered by the Pre-Raphaelites, the Surrealists and the 1960s counterculture.

Catalogue entry: William Blake (324 works)

50. Fra Angelico (1395–1455)

Italian · Early Renaissance · birthplace: Vicchio

Known for: Az Ítélet Szava, Az alázat Madonna, San Domenico oltárképe

A Dominican friar, Fra Angelico painted with pure colour and gold for prayer. His frescoes in the cells of the San Marco convent in Florence and his Annunciation panels combine medieval devotion with the new Renaissance space. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1982, and he is the patron of artists.

Consult the 541 works of Fra Angelico

51. Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825)

French · Neoclassicism · born in Párizs

Principal works: A Horatius eskütelése, A Marat halála, Marat halála

David painted the French Revolution and then Napoleon. The Oath of the Horatii (1784) launched Neoclassicism; The Death of Marat made a murdered revolutionary a martyr; Napoleon Crossing the Alps and The Coronation of Napoleon built an emperor's image. His studio trained a generation, Ingres and Gros among them.

Catalogue entry: Jacques-Louis David (277 works)

52. Kazimir Szeverinovics Malevics (1879–1935)

Ukraine · Suprematism · birthplace: Kijev

Known for: Fekete négyzet (1930), Szabályos komposzíció fehérre, Szuprematista Kompozíció

Malevich showed a black square on a white ground in 1915 and declared the start of Suprematism, a painting of pure feeling with no objects at all. Black Square and White on White (1918) are among the most radical works of the 20th century and influenced Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus and later minimalism.

Consult the 564 works of Kazimir Szeverinovics Malevics

53. Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)

French · Rococo · born in Valenciennes

Notable works: Cythera Úti Székelyezés, Pierrot Content, Gilles

Watteau invented a new kind of painting, the fête galante: elegant couples in parks, music and melancholy. Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717) was accepted by the French Academy under that new category, and it opened the Rococo age. His Pierrot (also called Gilles) in the Louvre is one of the most haunting figures of the 18th century.

Jean-Antoine Watteau in the catalogue: 271 works

54. Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920)

Italian · School of Paris · born in Livorno

Notable works: Ültető női sziluett, Jeanne Hebuterne portréja, Szomorú pólya haját leszállítva

Modigliani's long necks, almond eyes without pupils and simplified faces are recognisable at a glance. Working in Montparnasse, he combined Italian Renaissance line, African sculpture and Cézanne. He died at 35 in poverty; his Reclining Nude (1917-18) sold for $170.4 million in 2015.

Amedeo Modigliani in the catalogue: 663 works

55. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)

French · Neoclassicism · birthplace: Montauban

Known for: A Nagy Odaliszka, Homér apotéózisa, János király koronázása Rheims katedrálban Joan of Arc

Ingres defended line and classical drawing against Delacroix's colour in the great French debate of the 19th century. His impossibly long-backed Grande Odalisque, The Turkish Bath and his precise portraits of the bourgeoisie, such as Monsieur Bertin, influenced Degas, Picasso and Matisse. 'Ingres's violin', his amateur hobby, is a French idiom.

Consult the 610 works of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

56. Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506)

Italian · Early Renaissance · born in Padva

Principal works: after1471 - A halott Krisztus gyászolata, A Parnaszius: Mars és Vénusz, Siratóének a halott Krisztusról

Mantegna brought archaeology and sculpture into painting in Padua and at the court of the Gonzaga in Mantua. His Lamentation over the Dead Christ, with its startling foreshortening, and the illusionistic Camera degli Sposi ceiling, where figures lean over a painted opening to the sky, showed how far perspective could go.

Catalogue entry: Andrea Mantegna (285 works)

57. Giorgione da Castelfranco (1478–1510)

Italian · Venetian School · born in Castelfranco Veneto

Notable works: A fekvő Vénusz, A három filozófus, A Tempest

Giorgione died young, around 33, and only a handful of works are surely his, yet he changed Venetian painting by making mood and landscape the subject. The Tempest, whose meaning is still debated, and the Sleeping Venus, finished by Titian, opened the way to poetic landscape and to Titian's own art.

Giorgione da Castelfranco in the catalogue: 92 works

58. Georges Braque (1882–1963)

French · Cubism · born in Argenteuil

Notable works: Hátelek az Éstákén, Szimfonikus húszaszék és paletta, Man with a Guitar

Braque invented Cubism with Picasso between 1908 and 1914, working so closely that their paintings are hard to tell apart. He introduced letters, imitation wood and, in 1912, the first papier collé. His later still lifes and Birds series made him one of the most respected French painters of the century.

Georges Braque in the catalogue: 700 works

59. René Magritte (1898–1967)

Belgian · Surrealism · birthplace: Lessines

Known for: A képek átkárosítója (Ez nem pipa), Az ember fia, Megbűvölt idő

Magritte painted ordinary things in impossible situations with a deadpan, almost advertising style. The Treachery of Images, a pipe captioned 'This is not a pipe', and The Son of Man, a man in a bowler hat with an apple for a face, made him the most quoted Surrealist in pop culture and advertising.

Consult the 599 works of René Magritte

60. Paolo Uccello (1397–1475)

Italian · Early Renaissance · born in Pratovecchio

Notable works: A San Romói csata, Szent György és a örvény, A San Romói csata – Mich támadásának következményei

Uccello was obsessed with perspective, according to Vasari, working through the night on it. His three panels of The Battle of San Romano, now split between London, Florence and Paris, line up lances and fallen soldiers in strict geometric order, and his Saint George and the Dragon is a fairy tale in perspective.

Paolo Uccello in the catalogue: 134 works

61. Hans Holbein (1497–1543)

German · Northern Renaissance · birthplace: Augsburg

Known for: Jean de Dinteville és Georges de Selve kettős portréja (más néven A nagykövetek), VIII. Henrik portréja1, Erasmus portréta

Holbein became court painter to Henry VIII and fixed the faces of Tudor England. The Ambassadors (1533), with its distorted skull that appears only from the side, is one of the most famous puzzles in art; his portraits of Henry VIII, Thomas More and Erasmus are the images through which we know them.

Consult the 398 works of Hans Holbein

62. David Hockney (1937–2026)

British · Pop Art · birthplace: Bradford

Known for: Egy nagyobb splash, Útpálya két alakja, Egy nagyobb Kanadai-szék

The most famous living British painter. Hockney's swimming pools of 1960s California, such as A Bigger Splash, his double portraits, Yorkshire landscapes and later iPad drawings span six decades. In 2018 his Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.3 million, then a record for a living artist.

Consult the 331 works of David Hockney

63. Georges Seurat (1859–1891)

French · Neo-Impressionism · born in Párizs

Principal works: Vasárnap délután a Grande Jatte szigetén, Szállók Asnièresében, A Csirkusz

Seurat applied colour theory with a scientist's method: tiny dots of pure colour that the eye mixes from a distance, called pointillism. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86) took him two years and launched Neo-Impressionism. He died at 31, leaving only seven monumental paintings.

Catalogue entry: Georges Seurat (438 works)

64. Rogier Van Der Weyden (1400–1464)

Belgian · Early Netherlandish art · birthplace: Tournai

Known for: A leeresztés a keresztről, St Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Madonna, Bejelentés

Rogier van der Weyden added intense emotion to the realism of Van Eyck. His Descent from the Cross in the Prado, with life-size figures weeping in a shallow golden box, was copied all over Europe. He was the most influential painter in Northern Europe in the mid-15th century.

Consult the 314 works of Rogier Van Der Weyden

65. Théodore Géricault (1791–1824)

French · Romanticism · born in Rouen

Notable works: A Médusa raftsala, A hajós müszakaszomor, Egy férfi portréta

Géricault died at 32 after a riding accident, but one painting made him immortal: The Raft of the Medusa (1818-19), based on the survivors of a real shipwreck, which he researched by visiting hospitals and morgues. Its scale and raw drama opened French Romanticism. His portraits of the insane are early studies of psychology in art.

Théodore Géricault in the catalogue: 183 works

66. Jean-François Millet (1814–1875)

French · Realism, Barbizon school · birthplace: Gréville-Hague

Known for: A gyűjtögetők, Az Éjszakai Szállót, Az Angélu

Millet painted French peasants with dignity and near-religious gravity. The Gleaners (1857) and The Angelus, which became one of the most reproduced images of the 19th century, made him the leading painter of the Barbizon school. Van Gogh copied his works many times.

Consult the 369 works of Jean-François Millet

67. Egon Schiele (1890–1918)

Austrian · Expressionism · born in Tulln an der Donau

Principal works: Halál és Szűz, Discover Egon Schiele’s ‘Portrait of Wally,’ a haunting Expressionist masterpiece. Explore its bold technique, unsettling beauty & turbulent history – a statement piece for discerning collectors., A Szellek-látók II (Halál és férfi)

Schiele's twisted, angular nudes and raw self-portraits made him, with Kokoschka, the leading Austrian Expressionist. A protégé of Klimt, he produced some 300 paintings and thousands of drawings before dying of Spanish flu at 28, in 1918. Self-Portrait with Physalis and Death and the Maiden are his best-known works.

Catalogue entry: Egon Schiele (649 works)

68. Max Ernst (1891–1976)

German · Surrealism · born in Brühl

Principal works: A Celebes elefánt, Európa Eső után II, A Teljesség Városa

A leading Dadaist and Surrealist, Ernst invented frottage and grattage, techniques that let chance create the image by rubbing or scraping textures. The Elephant Celebes and Europe after the Rain II turned these methods into eerie, dreamlike worlds. He spent the war years in New York, where he influenced the young Abstract Expressionists.

Catalogue entry: Max Ernst (573 works)

69. Francis Bacon (1909–1992)

Irish-born British · Figurative painting · birthplace: Dublin

Known for: Három tanulmány Krisztus alapában álló alakokról, Velázquez utáni tanulmány Római Pápáról, 1650, Szóköves kutya

Bacon painted screaming popes, twisted bodies and the meat of the human figure with a violence unique in postwar art. Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944) and the Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X are icons; his triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4 million in 2013.

Consult the 435 works of Francis Bacon

70. Gerhard Richter (1932)

German · Contemporary art · birthplace: Drezda

Known for: Színes tábla 780-1, Általános tájékozódás szín és anyaghasználatról, Absztrakt Festmény 780-1

Germany's most celebrated living painter moves between blurred paintings made from photographs, such as Betty and the October 18, 1977 cycle, and large abstractions pulled with a squeegee. Richter's range challenges the idea that a painter needs one style, and his works are among the most expensive by any living artist.

Consult the 134 works of Gerhard Richter

71. Duccio Di Buoninsegna (1255–1319)

Italian · Sienese School, Trecento Gothic · birthplace: Siena

Known for: Maestà (Madonna és Angolok Szentével), Rucellai Madonna, Polyptych No. 28 (A Székelyült Virginság és Krisztus Gyermekével Egy Negy Szent Táblázat)

The great master of Siena painted the Maestà (1308-11), a double-sided altarpiece carried in procession from his workshop to the cathedral. Duccio softened Byzantine forms with human feeling and narrative, and founded the Sienese school that influenced Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers.

Consult the 311 works of Duccio Di Buoninsegna

72. Hilma Af Klint (1862–1944)

Swedish · Abstract art · birthplace: Solna

Hilma af Klint painted large abstract works from 1906, years before Kandinsky, guided by spiritualist ideas. She asked that her Paintings for the Temple, including The Ten Largest, stay hidden for twenty years after her death. Revealed late, her 2018 Guggenheim show became the most visited exhibition in the museum's history.

73. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)

French · Realism (Barbizon school) · born in Párizs

Principal works: Északi Nemesi Tavó: Fa Szerelés Árnyékában, Szőlőültetők az ébredő hajnal alatt, Morván, Szegény zsidó mandolínnal

Corot linked classical landscape to Impressionism. He painted in the open air in Italy and the forest of Fontainebleau, then softened his landscapes into silvery, misty 'souvenirs', such as Souvenir of Mortefontaine. Monet said there was 'only one master here, Corot'. He is also one of the most forged painters in history.

Catalogue entry: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1,374 works)

74. James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

American · Tonalism · born in Lowell

Notable works: Elrendezés szürkében és feketében. A festő anyjának portréja, Éjszakai kompozíció szürke és arany színben: A hatalmas rakéta, Egy Öreg Ember Feje, Ami Dohányzik

An American in London and Paris, Whistler argued that painting should be harmony of tone, like music, and titled works Symphonies and Nocturnes. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, better known as Whistler's Mother, became an American icon; his libel suit against the critic John Ruskin is a landmark of art history.

James McNeill Whistler in the catalogue: 567 works

75. Frans Hals (1580–1666)

Dutch · Dutch Golden Age · born in Antwerpen

Principal works: A nevető lovag, Jonker Ramp és szerelmese, Szent Lukács

Frans Hals painted portraits with fast, loose, visible brushstrokes that look modern even today. The Laughing Cavalier and his large militia group portraits in Haarlem capture faces in movement and good humour. Manet and Van Gogh admired his speed; Van Gogh counted 27 different blacks in his paintings.

Catalogue entry: Frans Hals (428 works)

76. Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)

French · Impressionism · born in Bourges

Notable works: A Csecsemő, A Rózsaszegény Északi Közelemény, A Tej Szegénye

Berthe Morisot was one of the founding members of the Impressionist group and showed in seven of their eight exhibitions. Her rapid, airy brushwork caught women's private lives, children and gardens, as in The Cradle (1872). Manet's sister-in-law and model, she is now recognised as one of the movement's key painters.

Berthe Morisot in the catalogue: 361 works

77. John Constable (1776–1837)

British · Romanticism · born in East Bergholt

Principal works: A Hay Wain, Salisbury katedráli északi tájképe, Hadleigh Castle

Constable painted the English countryside of his childhood, the Stour valley, with fresh light and sky studies made in the open air. The Hay Wain (1821) won a gold medal at the 1824 Paris Salon and impressed Delacroix and the French. His cloud studies are early scientific observations of weather.

Catalogue entry: John Constable (497 works)

78. Winslow Homer (1836–1910)

American · American Realism · born in Boston

Notable works: A Gulf Stream, Snap the Whip, A Ködjelzés

Homer began as an illustrator of the Civil War and became America's great painter of the sea. Breezing Up, The Gulf Stream and his watercolours of the Maine coast, the Adirondacks and the Caribbean show man facing nature with directness and drama. He is often called the greatest American painter of the 19th century.

Winslow Homer in the catalogue: 755 works

79. Banksy (1973)

British · Street art · born in Bristol

The anonymous British street artist turned stencilled graffiti into worldwide fame. Girl with Balloon partly shredded itself in its frame at Sotheby's seconds after selling in 2018, renamed Love Is in the Bin, and resold for £18.6 million in 2021. His satirical murals, from Bristol to the West Bank wall, comment on war, power and consumerism.

80. Willem De Kooning (1904–1997)

Dutch-American · Abstract Expressionism · birthplace: Rotterdam

Known for: Nő I., Bányászat, Női Dalolás II

Born in Rotterdam, de Kooning became a leader of Abstract Expressionism in New York. His aggressive brushwork in the Woman series (1950-53) blurred abstraction and figure and shocked critics. Interchange (1955) sold privately in 2015 for a reported $300 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a painting.

Consult the 117 works of Willem De Kooning

81. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842)

French · Rococo and Neoclassicism · born in Párizs

Principal works: Öniségével és Juliával Örökköszönő Édes Anyaság, Marie-Antoinette királynő pompás udvari ruhában, egy rózsával a kezében, A hercegasszony Katerina Vassziljevna Szavronszkaja portréja

Vigée Le Brun was the official portraitist of Marie Antoinette, whom she painted around thirty times. Fleeing the Revolution, she worked for the courts of Italy, Austria and Russia and painted some 660 portraits. Her warm self-portraits with her daughter brought a new tenderness to portraiture. She was among the very few women admitted to the French Royal Academy.

Catalogue entry: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (272 works)

82. Cimabue (1240–1302)

Italian · Gothic · born in Firenze

Notable works: Krisztus, Assziszi Szent Áronc (részlet), A Madonna dicsősége (részlet)

Cimabue, Giotto's teacher according to tradition, began to free Italian painting from Byzantine stiffness. His large Maestà panels in Florence and the Crucifix of Santa Croce, badly damaged in the 1966 flood and restored, show the first signs of weight and emotion. Dante named him in the Divine Comedy.

Cimabue in the catalogue: 52 works

83. Jasper Johns (1930)

American · Neo-Dada · born in Augusta

Principal works: Önmagában egy amerikai zászló – tizennégy vízszintes csíkos és egy függőleges háromsztarú színperegység, mely színei nem tökéletes fényességűek és melynek mérete nem pontosan megfelel az eredeti színperegységnek. Ez nem ünnepi ábrázolás; hanem egy vizsgál, Célpont, Térkép

Johns painted flags, targets, numbers and maps, familiar signs that viewers 'already know', with thick wax-based encaustic. Flag (1954-55) and Target with Four Faces bridged Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. One of the most expensive living American artists, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Catalogue entry: Jasper Johns (63 works)

84. Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997)

American · Pop Art · birthplace: Manhattan

Known for: Whaam!, Merülő lány, Drowning Girl oversize

Lichtenstein enlarged comic-strip panels into monumental paintings, imitating the printed Ben-Day dots by hand. Whaam! and Drowning Girl (1963) made the mass-produced image high art and made him, beside Warhol, the defining artist of American Pop Art.

Consult the 382 works of Roy Lichtenstein

85. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986)

American · American modernism · born in Sun Prairie

Notable works: A hóhér fejedelem vörös, fehér és kék, Oriental Poppyok, Zöld És Kék Zene

O'Keeffe painted enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers and the bones and red hills of New Mexico. Her close-up Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 million in 2014, the highest price for a woman artist at the time. A museum in Santa Fe is dedicated to her, and she is often called the mother of American modernism.

Georgia O'Keeffe in the catalogue: 501 works

86. Mark Rothko (1903–1970)

American · Color Field · born in Daugavpils

Principal works: Fehér Központ, No.1, Zárt Tér: Rothko 1964-es Kompozíciójának csendhangja

Rothko's large rectangles of glowing colour that seem to float and breathe were meant to produce tragedy, ecstasy and doom in the viewer. His Seagram Murals (Tate) and the dark panels of the Rothko Chapel in Houston are places of contemplation. No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) reportedly sold for $186 million in 2014.

Catalogue entry: Mark Rothko (477 works)

87. Simone Martini (1284–1344)

Italian · International Gothic · birthplace: Siena

Known for: A Bejelentés és két szent, Az Annunciáció Szűzasszony, Evangéliomiszent János

A follower of Duccio, Simone Martini brought elegance and gold to Sienese painting and worked for the papal court at Avignon, where he met Petrarch. His Annunciation of 1333 in the Uffizi, with its words in gold coming from the angel's mouth, is one of the most graceful works of the International Gothic.

Consult the 151 works of Simone Martini

88. Claude Lorrain (1600–1682)

French · Classical landscape · birthplace: Chamagne

Known for: Táj Szívvel és Szatyrával Görög táncözüntetés, Szamóca ölelve a kampániában, Harangyszéna Édes Heliádokkal

Claude Lorrain created the ideal landscape: golden light, classical ruins and a low sun over the sea. His seaports and pastoral scenes, such as Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, shaped how Europeans saw nature; English landowners designed their gardens to look like his paintings, and Turner asked to hang beside him in the National Gallery.

Consult the 325 works of Claude Lorrain

89. William Hogarth (1697–1764)

English · Satire and genre painting · born in London

Principal works: Térkép az A Rákóczi progresszából, Marriage A-la-Mode - 3, A megvizsgálás, Plate six, from A Rake's Progress

Hogarth invented the 'modern moral subject', painted series that read like novels and sold as prints. A Rake's Progress, Marriage A-la-Mode and Gin Lane satirised London society; to protect his work from pirates he lobbied for the 1735 Engraving Copyright Act, known as Hogarth's Act.

Catalogue entry: William Hogarth (307 works)

90. Edward Hopper (1882–1967)

American · American realism · born in Upper Nyack

Notable works: Edward Hopper, Gáz, Ház a vasút mellett

Hopper painted the loneliness of American cities: diners, gas stations, motel rooms and people lost in thought. Nighthawks (1942), with its brightly lit late-night diner seen from an empty street, is one of the most recognised American paintings and endlessly parodied in film and pop culture.

Edward Hopper in the catalogue: 366 works

91. Georges De La Tour (1593–1652)

French · French Baroque · birthplace: Vic-sur-Seille

Known for: Magdalena a füstölő gyertyával, A csalnok a Mázzal, A jósló

Georges de La Tour painted figures lit by a single candle with geometric simplicity and silence. The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame and The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds are his masterpieces. Famous in his lifetime, he was completely forgotten until his rediscovery in 1915.

Consult the 98 works of Georges De La Tour

92. Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939)

Czech · Art Nouveau · born in Ivančice

Principal works: Absinth (Női tanulmány)

Mucha's 1894 poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Gismonda made him famous overnight in Paris and defined the Art Nouveau look: women with flowing hair framed by halos, flowers and ornament. He then spent eighteen years on The Slav Epic, twenty huge canvases on the history of the Slavic peoples.

Catalogue entry: Alphonse Mucha (338 works)

93. Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)

Italian · Mannerism, Naturalism, Venetian school · born in Verona

Notable works: A Kána Boldogasszony Esküvője, Lucretia, Kána megjegyzése

Veronese painted vast, colourful feasts in Venice with architecture, silks and crowds. The Wedding at Cana in the Louvre, almost 10 metres wide, is the largest painting in the museum's collection. His Feast in the House of Levi earned him a summons before the Inquisition, which he answered by changing the title.

Paolo Veronese in the catalogue: 522 works

94. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593)

Italian · Mannerism · born in Milánó

Notable works: Vertumnus, Tavasz 1, Őszi szezon

Arcimboldo, court painter to the Habsburg emperors in Vienna and Prague, composed portraits from fruit, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. Vertumnus, a portrait of Rudolf II made of produce, and the Four Seasons series were long seen as curiosities; the Surrealists made him one of their ancestors.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo in the catalogue: 175 works

95. Franz Marc (1880–1916)

German · German Expressionism · birthplace: München

Known for: A Vöröslovakok, Tirol, Gazdasági lóak (The Red Horses)

Franz Marc co-founded the Blue Rider group with Kandinsky and painted animals in symbolic colours: blue for the spiritual, yellow for the feminine, red for matter. The Large Blue Horses, Fate of the Animals and Fighting Forms are key German Expressionist works. He was killed at Verdun in 1916, aged 36.

Consult the 493 works of Franz Marc

96. Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)

French · Post-Impressionism · birthplace: Albi

Known for: A Moulin Rouge-nál, La Goulue a Moulin Rouge-ba érkezve két nővel, Tánc a Moulin Rouge-ban

Toulouse-Lautrec painted the nightlife of Montmartre: the Moulin Rouge, cabarets, dancers and brothels. His posters for the Moulin Rouge and for Aristide Bruant, with flat colours and bold outlines borrowed from Japanese prints, turned the poster into an art form. He made 737 canvases before dying at 36.

Consult the 810 works of Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec

97. William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)

French · Academic art · born in La Rochelle

Notable works: A hullám, Biblis, Szűlő napfény és angyalok között

The most celebrated academic painter of his time, Bouguereau won every official honour in France. His mythological nudes and peasant children, such as The Birth of Venus (1879) and Nymphs and Satyr, show flawless technique. Dismissed by modernists for a century, he has returned to favour with collectors and museums.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau in the catalogue: 518 works

98. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

English · Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood · born in London

Principal works: Beata Beatrix, Prozerpina, Lilith úrnő

Poet and painter, Rossetti co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, which rejected academic art and looked back to early Italian painting. His later portraits of women with heavy hair and dreamy eyes, such as Beata Beatrix and Proserpine, defined the Victorian ideal of beauty and influenced Symbolism.

Catalogue entry: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (345 works)

99. Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641)

Flemish · Baroque · birthplace: Antwerpen

Known for: Charles I három helyzetében, Önkép, Királyi Sziluett Charles V lovagló pozványában

Rubens' brilliant assistant became the court painter of Charles I of England. Van Dyck's elegant full-length portraits, such as Charles I at the Hunt, set the style of aristocratic portraiture in Britain for 150 years; a pointed beard is still called a 'Van Dyke'.

Consult the 1,620 works of Anthony Van Dyck

100. Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)

Danish-French · Impressionism · born in Charlotte Amalie

Notable works: A Montmartre-i Boulevard éjszakai tájra, Vörös tetőek, falu sarca, téli időjárás, Őszi Ligetek

Pissarro was the only painter to show in all eight Impressionist exhibitions and the group's father figure, mentor to Cézanne and Gauguin. His views of villages, fields and markets and, later, his series of Paris boulevards seen from hotel windows, such as Boulevard Montmartre at Night, made modern life a subject for landscape.

Camille Pissarro in the catalogue: 1,559 works